Big up yo'self!

At least three times a year its ‘awards season’, and no I do not mean the Oscars/golden globes/grammys, I mean our very own COYA/MSK/Top 100 extravaganzas.

When one of the big brands that you work for wins an award, they will almost certainly want to tell the world all about it – and nothing less than a full page will do!

Now these ads tend to follow something of a template – a big picture of the award(s), a prominent logo of the award winner and a token message of thanks to ‘our customers, staff, blah blah blah who made it happen’.

‘We’ve won an award’ ads are inherently tricky because they are moving your brand into the territory of boasting, and boasting is a perilous artform. If you get it right you will be lauded from and to the roof-tops (a la all the best MCs), but if you get it wrong… ‘Kwani this guy thinks he’s who…?’

There is a deeper question which I have found myself faced with everytime that I have had to write an awards ad – what am I actually trying to say? Yeah we won an award so what? How can I best spin this for the brand? How can I relate this back to what the brand does and promises and offers?

Let me put it another way – should the “we’ve won an award” message be the headline of the ad, or should it be the conclusion?

I think that there is an element of laziness with these ads, on the part both of the agency and the client. The fact that you’ve won an award is not really the point – it’s all the stuff that you’ve done over the previous year that allowed you to win the award that you need to be talking about.

Now I understand perfectly that award ads tend to be ‘time-pressured’. The ceremony was last night and the CEO wants to see the ad in the next day’s paper, and what does he pay you for, and you guys are supposed to be able to think quickly… so the agency people spend all morning running around trying to find a semi-decent shot of the trophy, they plonk on a logo, type ‘thanks blah blah blah', get it approved by a harassed and panicking marketing chic, send it to the papers and then go for a beer or three feeling somehow unfulfilled without really understanding why.

So I guess my message is to Bwana CEO – give your agency a week. If you’re going to spend 600k on a full page, make it count – land a meaningful blow. Get your people to brief the agency (though I guess the agency should know) on everything that has happened over the previous year that has made it such a good year – what products you launched, where you innovated, how you introduced compulsory yoga sessions every morning… in other words give the agency what my old C.D. used to call ‘The Nyama’ i.e. ammunition.

I have always felt that award ads should be much more like advertorials than fashion shoots for a trophy. They should be bursting with news. An award ad gives you the opportunity to talk about your company – and to educate the public about the people and processes behind the brand that they know and, hopefully, love.

Yes of course your brand can’t be successful without the support of your customers, and it is important to thank and acknowledge them, but I feel that the primary audience of an award ad should actually be your own staff – it’s their award, they made it happen, they implemented, they worked long nights, they attended yoga every morning… let the ad be a celebration of them. Of almost equal importance to your staff are your suppliers and partners, without whom you would literally be dead in the water, yet they all too often get forgotten and ignored.

So next time you win an award, stop before you run to shout to the world about how clever you are for winning it. Big picture of a trophy? Seen that, turn the page – minimal impact, minimal added value to your brand… You might not win another award for a while, so seize the opportunity – carpe diem – and make the most of it. After all if you don’t make the most of it, what was the point of winning it in the first place, other than to experience a brief post-coital glow which will soon fade in the face of the next quarterly investors briefing. Finally, people will appreciate the effort (customers and staff). They will read the stories, they will look at the pictures, and they will conclude, in agreement with you, that yes, these guys did indeed deserve to win the award.